The present invention relates to an in-flight entertainment (IFE) system, cellular telephone communications systems and specifically to an airborne cellular telephone communications system that is also used for IFE purposes to deliver programming to passengers.
Use of cellular telephones and other wireless data devices on board aircraft has been banned by the Federal Communications Commission (FFC) and restricted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FCC ban is in place to avoid interference with terrestrial cellular systems while an aircraft flies over a cellular network. The FAS regulations restrict the use of cell phones on an aircraft to ensure against interference to onboard communications and navigation equipment. The FCC recently has announced that it is going examine relaxing its ban on cell phone use in aircraft. A relaxation in the FCC rules will still be subject to the rules and policies of the FAA and aircraft operators.
The FCC is proposing to permit airborne use of cell phone and other wireless devices at the devices lowest power settings under control of a pico cell located on the aircraft and only if such operation does not interfere with terrestrial cellular systems. In small cell phone networks pico cells are the smallest of radio cells. Pico cells often extend to just a few hundred meters in diameter in ground applications. Pico cells are used to fill in poor coverage areas or to augment larger micro cells or macro cells. On board an aircraft a cell phone user makes a call that goes to the pico cell. The pico cell then communicates from the aircraft to a ground station or to a satellite and from the satellite to a ground station and to finally connect to a public switched telephone network (PSTN).
The current state of the industry includes several cabin system integrators in the process of building and demonstrating pico cells on board aircraft including Honeywell, ARINC, Lufthansa, Air Cell, On Air and others.
Another problem that needs to be addressed in implementing an airborne pico cell system is the wide variety of cell phone models for the many different cell phone standards in use world wide. A passenger must be able to board an aircraft with the pico cell system and use his or her cell phone regardless of the model or type.
In-flight entertainment systems have been installed on commercial airliners for a number of years. An in-flight entertainment system typically comprises the components necessary to present entertainment, voice, data content to airline passengers and crew while in flight. Current IFE systems are wired systems that deliver programming to passengers similar to a cable television system. The current systems comprise head end equipment where programming and control functions originate, a distribution subsystem and display systems located at each passenger or crew seat. The entertainment content is distributed from the head end equipment to passengers by means of the distribution system. The display system receives the content from the distribution system, processes the content and displays it to the airline passengers.
Current IFE systems are best installed as an aircraft is being built. Existing aircraft may have retrofit systems installed. However retrofitting an existing aircraft with new wiring and cables is difficult and expensive. In addition wired systems are heavy due to the amount of wiring required to connect all the seats in an aircraft, comprise a large number of line replaceable units (LRU) such as distribution box equipment and seat equipment, and consume large amounts of power due to the large number of LRUs. Having a large number of LRUs also reduces reliability and increases cost.
Wireless IFE distribution systems offer many advantages over wired systems in an aircraft cabin. Retrofit installations on existing aircraft are much easier to accomplish due to the elimination of wires and cables. Finding locations for the many LRUs such as seat equipment is not required in a wireless system. Weight and power reductions are easily achievable with a wireless distribution system. Fewer LRUs result in less maintenance, more flexibility in IFE system installations, increased reliability, and reduced costs.
An aircraft presents a unique problem to serving video to cell phones not found with current commercial approaches. There is an expectation that one can view video for indefinite periods. Today's cell phones are not capable of continuously streamed video using the cellular infrastructure. Also there are issues with maintaining high enough quality of service over wireless links to support streaming video. There is also an expectation that one should be able to use audio services without competing with cabin noise sources.
Verizon recently released its V-Cast cell phone video service that can deliver high-quality video, however the service requires buffering time for each video clip. No continuous video streaming option is available.
Japan and other countries are producing cell phones that receive digital video via a separate integrated receiver. However this design does not serve the US due to differences in broadcast modulation technology.
A system using the proposed aircraft cabin pico cells and passenger cell phones is needed to provide a low-cost IFE system in contrast to current wired network solutions. The system must be able to function with the many models and types of cell phones in use. What also is needed in the system is a buffer that takes a live video stream and formats it for delivery to a cell phone.